My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 723: Everything is ready, troops are dispatched to Jianning

"Xiaozhi is indeed a capable minister in governing the country and a good general in suppressing rebellions. After Gao Ding escaped, he only relied on mediation to win over the local barbarians without wasting a single arrow, and the barbarian commander offered Gao Ding's head on his own!

Those empty talkers who criticized him for being rash and impetuous should open their eyes and take a good look! This is a model of being pragmatic and serving the country! "

Finally, at the end of August of that year, Fa Zheng successfully sent Gao Ding's head back to Chengdu.

When the head arrived, Zhuge Liang was naturally very excited and once again celebrated Fa Zheng with great fanfare. He also took the opportunity to publicly praise and criticize Fa Zheng.

Three months before this, Du Qiong and Qiao Yao, two civil servants from their faction, had criticized Fa Zheng's governance strategy for not being upright enough, which could easily create hidden dangers and damage the court's credibility when dealing with the barbarian issue.

At that time, Zhuge Liang responded with a justifiable reason, emphasizing that the mediation method that Fa Zheng was about to implement was not to deceive the barbarians, but to sincerely support those tribes that were willing to actively assimilate into the Han culture, which was "it is better to teach a man how to fish than to give him a fish."

Du Qiong and Qiao Yao wanted to argue, but they were forced to reconcile by Huang Quan, who seemed to be neutral but was actually trying to squeeze them out.

And Yang Hong, Zhuge Liang's confidant, used just the right words to make those people into a bet.

There is a sense of "If Fa Zheng's policy measures have indeed caused trouble, then it means that your advice is right. If Fa Zheng can be both civil and military, and can both win the hearts of the people of Yuexi and get rid of Gao Ding without damaging the credibility of the court, then you are making irresponsible remarks and hindering his policy."

Ever since that day, Du Qiong, Qiao Yu and others have been feeling uneasy. In the past few months, they have been trying to find ways to make up for their losses and to inquire about the news from Yuexi.

Now, the second shoe has finally fallen.

The official positions of Du Qiong and others will finally be resigned.

Zhuge Liang had already justified his actions in squeezing these people out and putting them in a difficult position. Now that the time had come for the harvest, how could he be merciful?

The "Records of the Three Kingdoms" clearly commented on Zhuge Liang's governance: "Those who are loyal and beneficial to the country will be rewarded even if they are enemies, and those who violate the law and neglect it will be punished even if they are relatives. Those who admit their guilt and show their feelings will be pardoned even if the crime is serious, and those who make excuses and make up stories will be killed even if the crime is minor."

Du Qiong, Qiao Yao and others were the "artificial rhetoricians" who said strange things behind people's backs every day. Zhuge Liang hated evil and would never let them go if he had the chance to punish them fairly.

Of course, he would not impose additional penalties beyond the law or impose excessive punishment.

In the end, taking advantage of this opportunity, Zhuge Liang legitimately deprived these two people of their actual positions and liquidated a small group of their followers.

Many civil and military officials in Chengdu were not dissatisfied with this and expressed their support for Zhuge Lingjun's wise decision. They also said that Zhuge Lingjun's ability to distinguish between loyalty, treachery, stupidity and virtue was very sharp.

At this point, after more than two years of hard work, Zhuge Liang had removed the local powerful families of Wang Shang and Chen Shi, who had previously hindered Liu Zhang.
They also removed the Du Qiong and other members of the great Confucian family who relied on their reputation to interfere in government affairs. After Du Qiong and Qiao Yu lost power, Qiao Yu's son and Du Qiong's disciple Qiao Zhou naturally had no chance to rise.

The people in the three core counties of Shu once again reached unprecedented unity.

……

When Fa Zheng sent Gao Ding's head to Chengdu, it was almost the autumn harvest season.

Therefore, it was impossible for Zhuge Liang to take any major action immediately. He could only deal with personnel work and rectify people's hearts while personally supervising the autumn harvest and the storage of tax grain.

Throughout September, counties on the Chengdu Plain were immersed in the joy of harvest.

After the golden rice is harvested, it originally needs to go through a long period of drying in the sun before it can be stored in warehouses in early winter.

However, the situation this year was slightly different. Zhuge Liang made plans in advance and asked the counties along the Minjiang River south of Chengdu to directly allocate half of the grain that needed to be collected, load it onto ships at designated times, and transport it to Yaoniu County along the Minjiang River and Moshui River (Dadu River).

Then they would cross a hundred miles of mountain road from Yaoniu County and arrive at the Sun River Valley in the north of Jingdu. They would then go downstream along the Sun River to Huiwu, where they would store up supplies as rations for the army's winter expedition to the south.

In this way, the trouble of drying, storing and warehousing half of the autumn grain in the above-mentioned counties this year was saved. After being harvested, the grain was only dried for a few days before being directly transported to the front line for consumption.

For food that does not need to be stored for a long time, it does not need to be dried too thoroughly, and the time spent on drying can be saved by more than half. Anyway, as long as it can be eaten within a few months, there will be no problem of moisture and mold.

Of course, there is another problem if the rice is not dried, which is that broken rice is easily produced during rice milling. This is intolerable in the later era of pursuing fine milling and complete removal of rice bran.

However, these problems were not a problem at all in the Eastern Han Dynasty, because as long as the fineness of rice milling was relaxed and the rice was not ground too cleanly, it would not be a problem.

How could the soldiers and civilians at that time dare to pursue eating refined rice that had the rice bran completely ground away? Most people were reluctant to throw away the nutrients in rice bran.

Moreover, even if the rice still has some moisture in it, and the rate of broken rice increases when it is milled, it doesn't matter. In this era, who dares to dislike the appearance of broken rice? It can still be eaten.

This kind of food has a light fragrance of new rice when eaten.

Many readers who have lived in big cities for many years in later generations may not be able to imagine this kind of smell and sweetness, because they may have eaten old rice all their lives, or at least rarely eat grains that have just been harvested and dried in the season.

The so-called new rice in later generations is at least milled in the spring of the following year after the autumn harvest. Rice that has been stored for half a year is considered the newest. This is because rice must be fully dried before it can be milled to avoid broken rice. In an era where appearance was important, broken rice could not be sold.

……

Zhuge Liang's logistical deployment cannot be said to be perfect.

But at least it is the most cost-effective southern expedition plan that can be thought of under the current conditions.

Every effort is made to mobilize the newly harvested autumn grain from the counties along the Minjiang River to keep transportation costs to a minimum.

Zhuge Liang did not bring many additional troops south, but only sent thousands of grain-protecting troops, who served as both a transport team and personal guards.

After arranging all government affairs in Chengdu, Zhuge Liang personally followed the army south to Yuexi to meet Fa Zheng. For this final battle of the southern expedition, Zhuge Liang decided to personally lead the army. On the one hand, it would not take too long, and he could indeed leave Chengdu with peace of mind for a while.

He had just eliminated a group of internal opponents, and now people's hearts were stable and no one would jump out to cause trouble.

Personally supervising the final battle in Pingnan would also be beneficial to deterring and integrating forces in Jianning, Yongchang and other places.

This was because many local barbarian kings and generals might never personally travel north to Chengdu to pay a visit to Zhuge Lingjun in their lifetime, allowing them to witness his majesty would help him win over people's hearts more thoroughly.

Don't underestimate this point. In the original history, Zhuge Liang impressed many people with his demeanor and appearance. Even when Zhuge Liang was still in obscurity, many people were shocked by his appearance and demeanor and were convinced by him.

In the context of the Han Dynasty, if a ruler was handsome, he would gain a lot of popularity.

In this respect, Fa Zheng was obviously far inferior to Zhuge Liang. Therefore, it was very necessary to let the barbarians in the most remote counties of the empire see the demeanor of the high-ranking rulers of the empire with their own eyes and show them kindness and gentleness in person.

As for the post-war governance after the pacification, Zhuge Liang had also thought about it. Fa Zheng would definitely return to Chengdu to help him preside over the overall situation in the future, and it would be impossible for him to stay in Nanzhong for a long time.

Huang Quan, who is responsible for raising military supplies and logistics for this war and regulating transportation and shipping, can serve as the prefect of Jianning for a few years if he performs well, and help the court sort out the powerful people in Nanzhong and appease the people's hearts in Nanzhong.

Finally, after half a month of marching and transportation, Zhuge Liang himself arrived in Yuexi County on October 9th.

Most of the local Yi leaders have already submitted to Fa Zheng, competing to be the Han Dynasty's dogs in exchange for advanced productivity.

When they heard that Zhuge Lingjun was coming south in person, all the barbarian commanders were very enthusiastic and came out nearly a hundred miles in advance to welcome him.

Furthermore, in order to prevent Zhuge Lingjun from becoming suspicious, everyone tacitly agreed not to bring guards with them, to show that they posed no threat at all.

When Zhuge Liang landed at the Dadu River wharf in Yaoniu County, the shore was crowded with Han guards who were maintaining order, as well as a group of Yi generals and their entourage who were separated from him by a long distance.

Fortunately, Zhuge Liang has Zhou Tai as his bodyguard, so the security measures seem loose on the outside but are actually tight on the inside, so there is no need to worry at all.

It was early winter, and Yuexi was not hot. Zhuge Liang wore a steel chain mail armor under his wide-sleeved official uniform. He was not afraid of hidden weapons such as sleeve arrows and flying knives.

The Yi commander who was in charge of the welcoming ceremony in Yaoniu County was none other than Li Qiucheng, who had surrendered before. Because he finally hunted down and killed Gao Ding, he received the highest reward from Fa Zheng. Zhuge Liang also made an exception and appointed him a captain.

The other barbarian leaders were not as active as him in serving the Han Dynasty, and now their status is lower than his. However, a few of them later worked hard to catch up, and now their strength is not far behind Li Qiucheng - this is also what Fa Zheng and Zhuge Liang are happy to see.

If only one barbarian general is left, he will inevitably become the next barbarian king of this county in the future, which is not a good thing. Li Qiucheng and others saw Zhuge Liang's banner from afar and bowed down in advance.

Under Zhou Tai's protection, Zhuge Liang strode up to Li Qiucheng and gently supported his arm with a feather fan.

The feather fan was certainly not very powerful, but Li Qiucheng felt the emperor's kindness, and he quickly straightened his back and stood up, praising him while observing with courage.

The other barbarian commanders followed suit and stood up, speaking in a nonsensical manner the words of praise they had memorized on the spur of the moment.

But just a few seconds later, Li Qiucheng and others were stunned.

The man opposite was no more than thirty years old, but more than eight feet tall, tall and slender, with a handsome and handsome face, sharp-edged and gentle like jade.

There are several strands of beautiful beard under his chin, no more than seven or eight inches long, but they are thick and smooth, flowing but not sparse, and moist but not greasy.

Looking at his clothes, he wore a three-beam Jinxian crown with gold threads as the frame and black gauze as the face. He wore a Shu brocade crane cloak with a white background and black edges. The waist was slightly constricted, and the ribbon was also lighter and shorter than the court ceremonial requirements. He held a feather fan with pure white goose feathers in his hand, and wore a pair of soap-colored linen clogs suitable for mountain climbing.

Wherever there is luxury, the court is well respected in every detail, but not too restrictive. From the sash to the clogs, the wearer is practical and approachable. Although he is in a high position, he can make onlookers feel a sense of courtesy and respect.

To describe it with a word that will be familiar to future generations, this is called low-key luxury and connotation.

All the barbarian commanders were instantly stunned by her beauty.

"Your Majesty has the appearance of a god, no wonder he also has the strategies of a god! If we had known your methods earlier, we wouldn't have to worry about Gao Ding's coercion. Gao Ding is courting death by becoming your enemy!"

The barbarian generals all praised him in this way, but of course these words could not be taken seriously.

No one will be convinced by the enemy's grace, but if they have been completely defeated and then see the enemy with a god-like demeanor, it will give everyone a way out.

"It turns out that the person who defeated us is such a person. Our defeat is not unfair. It is because the enemy is too strong. This is not the fault of war and it is not caused by human power."

This is a reflection of the inner feelings of these Yuexi Yi generals at this moment.

Zhuge Liang's godly demeanor added an extra constraint to their mental imprint, which had already determined they were willing to serve the Han Dynasty as dogs.

Zhuge Liang himself was already used to such scenes, and he was not surprised at all. He just chatted and laughed, spoke calmly, and comforted the barbarian generals with ease.

In the next seven or eight days, he first stayed in Yaoniu County for two days, had a banquet with the local Yi generals and chiefs to appease them, and then crossed the mountains and went south to Jingdu.

He stayed in Jingdu for another three days to proclaim the majesty of the imperial court and the benevolent policies of his lord. The barbarian generals who were waiting for him there, after seeing Zhuge Lingjun's grace and elegance, worshiped and admired him, just like their counterparts in Yaoniu County.

Afterwards, Zhuge Liang took a boat down the Sun River and finally arrived in Huiwu, which was approaching late October.

Fa Zheng received the notice and went north from Huiwu County thirty miles in advance to welcome Zhuge Lingjun's inspection.

"Xiaozhi has worked hard in the past six months! In such a short period of time, he not only pacified the Yuexi bandits, but also won over the people's hearts, making the barbarians willing to accept the court and naturalize, learn from us Han people to farm, build ships, and build water conservancy projects. His achievements are enough to be recorded in history."

As soon as the two sides met, Zhuge Liang first praised Fa Zheng's merits, then took his hand and whispered that when he left Sichuan next year, Fa Zheng would be the governor of Yizhou.

When Fa Zheng heard this, although he was mentally prepared, he still couldn't help but shiver slightly, and hurriedly whispered a few words of gratitude from the bottom of his heart.

This time Zhuge Liang came in person to supervise the battle and complete the final blow to the rebellious barbarian king in the south. Fa Zheng was worried in his heart whether Zhuge Liang was afraid that he would make too many contributions and become too powerful to be removed.

Now it seems that Lingjun just hopes that the final stage of winning over people's hearts can be completed more perfectly, so that he can leave Sichuan with peace of mind.

Zhuge Lingjun was so busy with government affairs and military affairs that it would be impossible for him to take a year off to deal with the affairs of Nanzhong. The civil affairs and personnel rectification in Shu County and other places would be left behind.

However, we can squeeze out only one winter, or at most until the beginning of spring, so this little time can be squeezed out, especially since the situation in Chengdu has just been cleaned up and a group of opponents have been eliminated.

After Zhuge Liang and Fa Zheng talked it out face to face, all their doubts were completely dispelled.

Fa Zheng originally wanted to invite Zhuge Liang back to the county town to rest for a few days.

But Zhuge Liang said he was not in a hurry to return to the county town, and he had no plans to stay in the city for the next few days. He went straight to the ferry town at the mouth of the Sun Shui River, where he would stay for a few days and inspect the latest construction of the port and shipyard before crossing the Lu River to the south.

Fa Zheng did not disobey and immediately ordered the welcoming team to adjust their arrangements, mobilize more ships, and escort Zhuge Liang to inspect.

Anyway, a market town has been built at the ferry where the Yalong River and Jinsha River meet.

Although it had only been developed for a short five months, its scale and level of prosperity were already no less than that of Huiwu County - of course, this was also due to the fact that Huiwu was a small county, which was originally too shabby and desolate.

Before the arrival of the southern expeditionary army, Huiwu County had a population of barely over 2,000 households, and most of them were scattered in the river valleys and countryside outside the city, with only a few hundred households living in the county seat.

Fa Zheng deployed a total of 15,000 troops to garrison in this area.

The Han people in the nearby counties, as well as the barbarian tribes that gathered from near and far, now provided support to the army, cultivated land and fished, or participated in the construction of docks and shipyards, and the improvement of shipping and water conservancy.

Three thousand households gathered in that ferry town, which was equivalent to Panzhihua City in later generations.

The group sailed downstream for another half a day until they finally arrived at the ferry town at nightfall.

Zhuge Liang was quite pleased to see with his own eyes the dock and shipyard that had begun to take shape and were built entirely of rough bamboo, as well as the grand water fortress.

Xiaozhi is also good at construction.

Fa Zheng was standing by and observed Zhuge Liang's expression. He then boasted about his own achievements and ordered a banquet to be prepared to welcome his master.

Fa Zheng did not engage in any extravagant activities. There were not many livestock products in this area, and the locals had not had time to learn from the Han people to raise pigs and sheep. The few buffaloes were also used for farming and could not be killed for meat, so what was given to Zhuge Liang to eat was only wild animals and fish.

Of course, the senior civil servants in Liu Bei's camp today have more or less learned the medical and physiological common sense theories developed by the Zhuge brothers and Hua Tuo, and they also know the concept of "parasites."

In this barbaric land, all fish and game must be cooked thoroughly before eating. You must never risk eating half-cooked tender meat just for the sake of taste.

In front of Zhuge Liang himself, there was nothing but a pot of boneless fish soup and a few large fish that had been roasted thoroughly with their bellies ripped open. Even Zhuge Liang himself couldn't recognize them.

In addition, there is the meat of wolf and wild boar, which is cut into thin slices, roasted thoroughly over charcoal fire, and eaten with sauce.

The fish soup is actually made from the boneless haoer fish, a specialty of the Liangshan mountain area. The scientific name of this fish is "kiss goby". This fish is widely distributed in the Yalong River and Anning River, but rarely in the Jinsha River because the fish is too small, only half a foot long, but the yield is extremely high and it is easy to debone.

Previously, Fa Zheng had people try the soup and found it tasted okay and had no adverse reactions, so he used it in large quantities to make fish soup and to supplement the meat for the garrison.

As for the big fish that can be directly fried or grilled, they are several kinds of schizothorax that are special to the Jinsha River and Yalong River. These fish are later cultivated artificially, and generally can be raised to two kilograms in a year. If they are raised for a longer period of time, the growth of meat will be slow, which is not cost-effective.

However, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the local barbarians had poor fishing skills, and the rivers were full of schizothorax. There were many large fish that were three years old and no one ate them. Fa Zhenggang ordered people to use bottom-sinking gill nets to intercept them, and they often caught large fish weighing more than ten Han jin (2.3 Han jin is only kilograms).

Zhuge Liang ate these specialties from the Yalong River and Jinsha River. Although he did not think they were very delicious, he felt more at ease.

He was not doing this for his own appetite, but when he thought that with the new production technology, he could allow the barbarians to live a stable life and thus assimilate with peace of mind, he felt that he had lived up to the great cause entrusted to him by his lord.

When I leave Sichuan next year, the tribes in the south will surely be able to follow the imperial court and work hard to suppress the rebellion.

Instead of causing trouble just to fight for a little profit.

If productivity increases, everyone will have enough living space.

(End of this chapter)